CARROLL TALKS CAREER PATH: Seattle coach Pete Carroll spoke extensively Monday about his unusual career path -- from being fired twice in the NFL to becoming the most successful coach in college football to the Super Bowl.

"I thought I would never leave USC," Carroll said. "It was a perfect situation and I loved it. Everything was formatted so that I could really do things the way I wanted to do them and I had tremendous freedom and support, but I always knew that the NFL was the most competitive level that you could get involved with in the world of football. I always had that in the back of my mind that I wanted to see what would happen, particularly after the years at USC as we had success."

Carroll also reflected on a crucial period in his career, the hiatus he took between coaching the Patriots and USC.

"That was really the biggest opportunity shift, because it was really the first time I had some time," Carroll said. "I was semi-retired for 10 months or whatever it is and I had a chance to sit back and I had to kick into a real competitive mode because the job market was going to come up again as I sat out for one season. In that time I think that the competitiveness really elevated in me that I needed to get right. I needed to do everything I could to get as prepared as possible."

Carroll, 62, said his tenure USC specifically helped in his "commitment to young players."

After all, the youth of Seattle's defense has paid major dividends.

"When you're a coach, you don't like playing the young guys, and when you're the GM you want to see all the young guys," Carrol said. "When you're a GM and a coach -- in essence what you are in college -- I made the choice to go with young guys. We developed a whole approach about that and a philosophy about how that worked out for us and it paid off in a tremendous way."

EMOTIONAL YEAR: It's been an emotional year for Seahawks fullback Michael Robinson, who was cut on the last day of training camp after his body had suffered an adverse reaction to the prescription anti-inflammatory Indocin. He lost weight and, for a little while, lost his job.

But the veteran fullback was brought back to Seattle midseason, and he reclaimed his starting job. He was seen crying after the Seahawks defeated the 49ers to clinch the Super Bowl berth.

"It was just, I had a long year being cut, being sick, not really realizing the extent of the sickness," Robinson said. "I didn't know that my kidneys were failing and my liver was failing. I had no idea. I just thought I was getting a bug. But again, hindsight is 20/20 and I'm glad I'm here now. I've got my weight back, got my strength back, and it was an opportunity to come back here and I'm glad it opened up."

Robinson was asked if marijuana should be explored for treating NFL players.

"I think anything that can make our job a little easier without sacrificing our health at the same time is good for the league, it's good for players," he said. "I'm all for alternative forms of recovery and all those types of things -- hyperbaric chambers, o-zoning, whatever it may be. So, I'm all for it. Whatever can help the player, I'm for."

"We have to continue to explore and compete to find ways that are going to make our game a better game and take care of our players in the best way possible," Carroll said. "The fact that it's in the world of medicine is obviously something the Commissioner realizes and him making the expression that we need to follow the information and the research absolutely I'm in support of. Regardless of what other stigmas may be involved, I think we have to do this because the world of medicine is trying to do the exact same thing and figure it out and they're coming to some conclusions."